Better gaskets for drain and vent plugs on Alpha 1 Gen 2?

[JASinIL2006]

I've read here a few times that the blue and yellow gaskets used to seal the vent and drain plugs on the Alpha 1 Gen 2 outdrives are prone to leaking. I also recall reading about another type of gasket - a grey one, maybe? - that is supposed to be superior.

I cannot find any links to the superior gaskets... does anyone know what I'm referring to? Anyone have a source for them? I'd prefer to get them here, if iboats carries them, but I'm not sure what brand is recommended.

Thanks!

Jim

 

[Bt Doctur]

The come in the sierra water pump kits 18-2945 is the gasket number

 

[alldodge]

The newest seal is Mercruiser 12-191833 and is Blue for the Gen 2.

Bravo drive use Mercruiser 26-830749 which is yellow that replaced the Blue

 

[Bt Doctur]

And they leak too

 

[alldodge]

Have not found any Bravo's leaking, are you talking about the Alpha's? Are you also saying that the Sierra gaskets work better then Merc?

 

[Bt Doctur]

I have found fewer issues using the sierra ones over the merc blue or yellow ones. Some drain plugs are almost impossable to remove if the yellow ones were used. If that same material was used since the beginning , why go and change it? Cheaper to manufacture, inherent corrosion risks?
There was a seal change by mercruiser to go to a single lip vs a double lip seal for the inputshaft. This led to a large amount of warranty replacement of outdrives. The seal was changed from National to Chicago Rawhide CR.
If you got 20 hours on it before failure you were lucky..I refuse to reseal a drive using other than the National seal that is available.

 

[alldodge]

I've found the Blue or yellow have no issues coming out of the newer Bravo drives. Found the Yellow do have some issues with the first gen Bravo housings. Understand your point, if it works then continue to use.

 

[JASinIL2006]

The come in the sierra water pump kits 18-2945 is the gasket number

Thank, Bt Doctur, that's what I was looking for. When servicing my outdrive, I noticed some oil staining around the drain plug on my Gen 2 drive. It looks to me like the blue gasket on my drain plug didn't seal very well, so I am going to give the Sierra gaskets a try.

Thanks to all for replying!

Jim

 

[JustJason]

The biggest reason why the drain plugs leak are two fold.

1. First is people don't take the time to pick out the old gasket with a small screwdriver. Couldn't tell you how many times I've seen them double stacked.

2. People don't tighten up the drain plugs enough. When you tighten up the drain plug you want to set your impact driver to tighten. Snug the screw up by hand, and then give the driver just hard enough of a tap that the screw turns a little more.

If you do that then even the blue ones will not leak.

 

[JASinIL2006]

I just torque them to 40 lb-in. like the manual says. I don't think have an impact driver...

 

[achris]

BIG screwdriver to tighten, then impact driver to remove.

Doesn't matter the colour, blue, yellow, green with polka dots....Never had one leak.